Editorial: Right-wing website played America for a fool

Associated PressEloise and Roger Spooner at their farm in Iron City, Ga.

Jumping to conclusions is never a good idea. But when the White House, a cabinet secretary and other folks who should know better do so, the results are disturbing.

That’s what happened this week when Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod was fired after a right-wing Website, Big Government, distorted remarks she had made at an NAACP gathering earlier this year.

During the talk, Sherrod told the audience the story of farmer Roger Spooner of Iron City, Ga., who nearly lost his farm in 1986.

At first, Sherrod said she was reluctant to help because Spooner was white, and she was black and angry about the way southern black farmers were treated. But a week before the farm was to go up for auction, Spooner again asked Sherrod for help. She complied and the farm was saved.

“Well, working with him made me see that it’s really about those who have versus those who don’t,” Sherrod told her audience. “They could be black. They could be white. They could be Hispanic. And it made me realize then that I needed to work to help poor people ...”

A religious person might call her change of heart an epiphany, a born-again moment. But no matter how you characterize it, Sherrod listened to her better angel and found she was a better person for it.

But as that old saying goes, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Sherrod was vilified after a version of her speech that conveniently did not include the part about her change of heart was posted on the Website.

Before you could say Google, Sherrod’s comments were lighting up the blogosphere and being broadcast on television. The next thing you know the USDA is canning Sherrod via her Blackberry.

But news happens at the speed of light these days, and before anyone had a chance to think straight the true story got out: Sherrod was no racist, she was just another human being struggling with her conscience.

Associated PressShirley Sherrod

Now, everyone involved, except Sherrod, is left with egg on their faces because of a dishonest effort to paint a black official in a false light.

The White House and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack apologized and offered Sherrod a new job. Even FoxNews blowhard Bill O’Reilly, who spread the report on his show, manned up and said he was sorry.

Sad to say, the real story could have been discovered by going to the source, Roger and Eloise Spooner. They kept their farm thanks to Sherrod. “We probably wouldn’t have (our farm) today if it hadn’t been for her leading us in the right direction,” Mrs. Spooner said.